JOLLY OL' SANTA [Kathi Campbell Design, hooked by Me]

Oh...Peaceful Light..!

Thanks for taking the time to learn a little bit about me! 

I was born and raised in Southern California and come from a long line of Italian seamstresses who migrated to the US from Sicily.  I have fond memories of being surrounded by my great aunts and my grandmother who spent hours finishing fine details on articles of clothing by hand.  I was fascinated by the shimmering sequins, fine stitches, and all the little details that they added to create elegant gowns, truly works of art! 

Even throughout my fine arts education in college where I learned painting in watercolor, oils & acrylics as my primary focus, I was always drawn back to my roots in fabric.  After college I explored basket weaving and hand-dyeing my baskets with natural dyes.  Then I bought a spinning wheel and began spinning and off-loom weaving.  I found out that I was most “in love” with TEXTURES & COLOR!  Over the years I continued to experiment with fibers and went on into quilt making and art clothing.  Working with fabrics opened up a whole new area of expression using textures, pattern & color to create a piece of art. 

A short time after I got married, my husband & I moved to Massachusetts so he could finish up his education.  While I was living there, I stumbled across a rug hooking demonstration at the New Hampshire League of Craftsman show at Lake Sunapee and I was “hooked”.  Lucky for me, when the job market took us back to Southern California, I was able to find a group of rug hookers who helped me explore the wide range of hooking that is available from fine shading to primitives and wide cut.  I’ve been rug hooking now for 13 years and began teaching both beginning rug hooking and penny rug (wool applique) classes for 10 of those years.  I began dyeing wool out of necessity when the wool I needed to help color plan a student’s rug or my own projects was not easily available.  Creating color formulas and playing with dyes has brought me full circle back to my days of painting. 

Can you believe it…we are now back in Massachusetts once again.  It was a long time goal, finally realized.  My husband of 22 years plus our 4 cats & bird now live in a reproduction Saltbox on 2.5 acres in the woods.  The colors that change seasonally and the wild life that abounds serves as a constant inspiration for the hand-dyed woolens I create.  I look forward to seeing what comes out of my dye pots next!  At any given time, you can find me stirring up new brews of colorful marbleized, textured, spot dyed, dip dyed & transitional dyed woolens all ready to be hooked into rugs, sewn into your wool appliqué projects, made into pillows, pincushions or art clothing.  Hope you will be inspired too!

I have tried to set myself apart from the many dyers out there, challenging myself to create new formulas with interesting & intriguing results.  I go through many steps, using several formulas & various dye methods to achieve the results you see in my hand-dyed woolens.  I plan to rotate a wide variety throughout the year: color bundles in light, medium & dark shades over textures, great for Primitive rugs; seasonal color favorites; unique specialty blends and bright shades used for Fine Shaded floral, fruit, animal & landscape rugs.